Firm offers businesses to N200b online payment options

Nigeria’s online payment service provider PayU Nigeria has identified businesses that can benefit from its global expertise. It operates in 16 markets where it offers over 250 payment options.

Its Country Manager, Ms Juliet Nwanguma, said the firm has rolled out strategies to connect businesses to Nigeria’s online payment market estimated to surpass N200 billion this year, from N167 billion last year.

Speaking with The Nation in Lagos, she expressed confidence that with over 2.3 billion users world-wide, the e-commerce payment gateway could help businesses grow their market share and help them to achieve their objectives.

“At PayU, we believe that with the deployment of appropriate strategies and products which are designed to encourage more businesses to adopt online payment, the market in Nigeria can record triple digit growth in both volume and value of online payments. This is the driving philosophy of PayU’s operations in Nigeria,” Nwanguma said.

The Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) recently released a data, which showed that 5.5 million transactions worth N46.7 billion, were generated through online sales in the first quarter of the year.

This is an increase in the quarterly average of 3.5 million transactions worth N33 billion last year. This 58 per cent growth is a clear indication of the increased confidence and preference for online sales among Nigerians.

But the double digit growth, according to Nwanguma, was far below the potential of the market for online payments in Nigeria.

She noted that in a country of over 180 million people, consisting of 61 million active bank customers and where e-payment transactions are worth N56 trillion yearly, the potential for online payments in Nigeria is huge and waiting to be tapped.

The PayU Nigeria Country Manager said the firm’s mission was to leverage Nigeria’s 97 million active Internet users to popularise and increase online payments in Nigeria.

“Since last year when we entered the Nigerian market, we have used our globally tested products such as tokenisation, recurring payments for subscription services and single click payments for faster checkout.

“Our range of services according to different business categories especially the PayU Easy service allows start-ups to start selling online instantly without the need of a bank account or trading history,” Nwanguma explained.

She said PayU has assisted small, medium and large organisations with their online payments. In particular, the robust and flexible features of PayU Plus and PayU Enterprise, she said, have assisted merchants to grow and expand their online payment.

All card details are secured by secure socket layer (SSL) and transfer layer security (TLS) encryption and reinforced through various encryption processes in order to provide protection for all payment information.

They also are 3D secure enabled, which gives consumers added security when shopping online.

The increased preference for online payments among Nigerians offers new opportunity for businesses to increase patronage and grow revenue.

The global expertise of PayU, combined with its easy-to-use and secure online products provide the channel to leverage on this opportunity and achieve business objectives.